THE LANGUAGE OF RELIGION, OF THE LAW AND OF POLITICS: THE PROBLEM OF TRANSLATABILITY

This is the full version of the paper presented by Enrico Ferri of Unicusano University at the international conference on ‘Fifty years of Italian Studies at Ain Shams’, March 17-18, 2013, at the University of ‘Ayn Shams, Cairo.
Every judicial system is founded on a set of principles which define its essence and which provide it with homogeneity and unanimity. At the same time, such principles (for example, ‘the sovereignty of the people’ in democracies) are regarded as bestowing legitimacy on the system; in other words, establishing its juridical validity. Enrico Ferri’s essay analyses certain important theoretical issues which are raised in the judicial systems of communities whose vision of the world is based on revelation and a monotheism originating in Abraham. The essay concentrates especially on Islam, and also on the other two Abrahamic monotheisms – Judaism and Christianity – and discusses basic questions such as the oneness and exclusivity of the revealed God. The main idea explored in the essay is that the translation or interpretation of the Word of God cannot be achieved or understood after one or more readings, which are expressions of a given historical or cultural point in time, but must always be replenished, just as in the fullness of time human existence is replenished, in order to draw lessons for the present from the universal principles (without reference to any specific time frame) which God has consigned to mankind.